Father James M. Ford: In 45 years with the church, alleged abuse dates back to 1968

Father James M. Ford's career in the Los Angeles Archdiocese didn't end until 2005, though he faced questions back to the early 1980s about inappropriate contact with male students and was known to have had an affair with a former seminary student who died of AIDS, according to his personnel files. | Related: Exhibit 47, Page 111

Ford's file includes a letter in 1983 that a male student had reported "an ongoing relationship with Father Jim Ford."

But the letter from Father Stafford Poole, the rector at St. John's Seminary, written to Cardinal Timothy Manning, also expressed skepticism about the report, saying the student is a "disturbed person" and prone to fantasy.

A 1987 letter in Ford's file reports a call from a monsignor that "The seminarian also told him that Jim Ford tended to be involved with high school boys and that, in his estimation, inappropriate activity was involved."

It also relates that a former seminarian whom Ford had been involved with was dying of AIDS. The unnamed person who took the call said he would not relate the information to Ford "for the reason that the people involved in these activities usually are aware of these matters."

Ford, who was born in Los Angeles in 1940, was ordained in 1960. He was assigned to at least eight parishes throughout the region — including Our Lady of Lourdes in Orange, San Buenaventura in Ventura and Our Lady of Peace in Sepulveda — until his retirement from St. Roque in Santa Barbara in 2005 amid a canonical investigation.

Father James M. Ford

Among the documents are references to a lawsuit filed by a man who alleged Ford had molested him from 1968 to 1971 at Orange County's Mater Dei High School and Holy Family Parish. The victim, who was 14 when the incidents started, eventually received a $225,000 settlement from the Orange Diocese and a larger amount from the Archdiocese of Los Angeles in 2007.

That man told church authorities in a five-hour meeting in March 2005 that he was sexually confused as a youth and Ford preyed upon that confusion.

When confronted with the allegations, Ford vehemently denied them. He and his supporters questioned the man's claims, describing him as troubled and saying it was impossible for Ford to have time alone with him in the rectory and in the church.